Opinion: In today’s pages: Bipartisan brains, Becks’ cleats
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The editorial board thinks up a few ways to spend what another year in Iraq will cost:
How about spending $20 billion on anti-poverty and education programs in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan, to give the population a reason to fight the Taliban? Or distributing $20 billion in emergency support to impoverished Iraqi families? Wouldn’t $10 billion help repatriate the 2 million Iraqi refugees abroad and resettle the 2 million inside Iraq who have fled sectarian violence? Would $10 billion for child-health programs in Islamic nations help demonstrate that Americans are not, in fact, at war with Muslims?
The board asks what a new study that says liberals are more adaptable means for people who switch sides. And finally the board thinks L.A. students should have a wide choice of electives instead of doing teachers’ chores for credit.
Columnist Ronald Brownstein says Washington needs to change its partisan style before asking Iraqis to learn to compromise and reconcile. The Humane Society’s Michael Markarian praises soccer star David Beckham for wearing synthetic cleats instead of kangaroo leather ones. Writer Richard A. Viguerie and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) both write about choosing an attorney general.
Readers react to Gen. David H. Petraeus’ report to Congress. Los Angeles’ Doug Wichert says, ‘War is still too important to be left to the generals.’